A Kansas City, Kansas, man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in an international drug trafficking ring, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas.
In April 2022, Jovanny Medina, 24, of Kansas City, Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.
According to court documents, Medina took part in a conspiracy to traffic illegal narcotics sourced from his family in Mexico in the Kansas City metro area. His primary role in the operation was to import and distribute multi-kilogram quantities of methamphetamine, collect drug debts, and transport bulk United States currency from Kansas City to Mexico.
“As long as drug smugglers infiltrate our borders and peddle poison into our communities, the Department of Justice will remain vigilant in arresting and prosecuting offenders with the deliberate intention of dismantling these criminal enterprises,” U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard said in a news release.
U.S. Attorney Slinkard commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration for their collaborative investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Catania who prosecuted the case.
This prosecution was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location.
Ming Zhang, an Overland Park resident, made her naturalization official during a special ceremony for 47 immigrants in honor of Independence Day. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)
by Margaret Mellot, Kansas Reflector
In the nearly 14 years she’s been in the U.S., Ming Zhang has completed her law degree, started a family and moved to Kansas.
A day before Independence Day, she celebrated her naturalization alongside 46 other new citizens.
Zhang, an Overland Park resident, gave her Oath of Citizenship outside the Children’s Mercy Park field in Kansas City, Kansas, as a part of a special effort by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to welcome new citizens across the country during the first week of July.
“I just really love the freedom here,” Zhang said. “(The) people are friendly and the culture — I just really fell in love here.”
With a passion for justice, Zhang knew she wanted to study in the U.S. She moved in 2008 to study in upstate New York at Cornell University, where she went on to complete her Juris Doctor and meet her husband. Together, they moved to his home state of Kansas.
“After I went to law school in China, I realized that I wanted to come abroad,” Zhang said, “and then see what the common law is like here in the States versus China. After that, it was just amazing work.”
While giving their Oath of Allegiance, many immigrants cried during their last step before becoming a U.S. citizen. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)
U.S. District Judge Robert D. Berger administered the Oath of Citizenship for the new citizens, who came from 27 countries: Algeria, Brazil, Burma, Canada, China, Congo (Kinshasa), Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Lithuania, Granada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.
Samuel Swift-Perez joined his brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after leaving Venezuela in 2014 following political unrest attributed to many of the country’s economic policies.
“(This ceremony) means the beginning of a new life,” Samuel said. “It’s actually some kind of relief, to feel finally as a citizen because (for immigrants) you actually are a temporary resident and then a permanent resident, but you still feel a little limited. But now I feel very, very good and I’m very happy.”
He moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he met his wife, Lacey Swift-Perez. They’ve been married for four years now and said they’re looking forward to what’s ahead. Wiping tears from her face, Lacey said the ceremony marked the end of uncertainty and fear for her husband’s future.
“I’m really grateful for this process,” Lacey said. “I’m really grateful that we made it to this point that he is now a full citizen and is able to be safe in our country.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids attended the naturalization ceremony July 3, in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector)
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids was in attendance to show support for the new U.S. citizens. For her first time seeing a naturalization ceremony, Davids said she was excited to celebrate the 47 new citizens.
“It’s pretty amazing to get the chance to be here,” Rep. Davids said. “A lot of people work really, really hard to be able to go through the entire process with the tests and everything else. I feel honored that I get to be part of this.”
Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court after she was sworn in Thursday by Chief Justice John Roberts and her mentor, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer — whose retirement was official moments earlier.
The swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court making Jackson’s place in history official took barely three minutes and capped a months-long process that began when Breyer announced in January he intended to step down at the end of the court term.
Jackson’s husband, Patrick, held two Bibles upon which Jackson swore her oath. One was a family edition and one had been donated to the court in 1906 by Justice John Marshall Harlan, the only justice to dissent in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case that upheld racial segregation.
Roberts administered the constitutional oath, while Breyer, for whom Jackson clerked two decades ago, administered the judicial oath. Roberts and Breyer were dressed in black robes while Jackson wore a navy dress.
“On behalf of all of the members of the court, I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” Roberts said to close the ceremony, using Jackson’s new title for the first time.
Other than reciting her pledges, Jackson did not speak during the ceremony.
Roberts said that Jackson’s daughters, Leila and Talia, were present in the audience.
At a White House event in April celebrating her Senate confirmation the previous day, Jackson did address the historic nature of her confirmation.
“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” she said. “But we’ve made it. We’ve made it, all of us.”
Rocky confirmation
President Joe Biden vowed on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would nominate a Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court and did so by selecting Jackson two months after Breyer announced his retirement.
Jackson’s addition will not change the ideological balance of the court, whose 6-3 conservative majority has riled Democrats with consequential rulings on major cases in recent weeks.
But a faction of Republican senators — led by Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Texas’ Ted Cruz — still pursued an aggressive campaign against her confirmation, showing how partisan high court selections have become.
Over two days of questioning, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Jackson over her sentencing record in child pornography cases, defense of terrorism suspects and views of culture war issues like critical race theory and the definition of a woman.
Democrats and other supporters, including police associations, said the attacks were unfair and praised Jackson as highly qualified.
Following a grueling week of confirmation hearings, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson in a 53-47 vote in April. Three Republicans — Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Utah’s Mitt Romney — joined all Democrats in voting for her.
Florida background
In addition to being the first Black woman on the court, Jackson on Thursday became the court’s first former public defender and its first person from Florida. Born in Washington, D.C., Jackson grew up in Miami.
Jackson, 51, graduated from Harvard University in 1992 and Harvard Law School cum laude in 1996. She later clerked for a federal trial court in Massachusetts, a federal appeals court covering northeastern states and for Breyer.
She worked in private practice before joining the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2003 and becoming a federal public defender in 2005.
She began her judicial career as a U.S. District judge in Washington, D.C., in 2007. Biden nominated her to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year. The Senate confirmed her for that position in a 53-44 vote.
